As I’ve said a few times in this blog, training time for most of us is limited. Therefore if you wish to progress at a faster rate it’s good to practice at home, in the gym, or wherever you can. Even techniques that usually require an uke, e.g. throws and wrist locks can be practised at home. Obviously you can’t practice the throw itself, but you can practice the footwork and other movements required to get into the throwing position. The footwork is one of the most important aspects of any technique and often the most overlooked. When practicing these techniques outside the dojo, visualise what you wish to do when you are at training. Visualisation techniques are used by many competitive athletes with great success. There are also many warm up exercises in martial arts that are specifically designed for that art. Practice these outside the dojo to strengthen the necessary muscles and get your body used to the actions necessary for training.
Again visualise how these warm up exercises help your technique and do them properly. It’s better to do a few repetitions properly than many badly. By doing these things at home, you’ll improve at a faster rate and you’ll also be champing at the bit to try the techniques you’ve practiced at home in the Dojo.

When practising martial arts you will be paired with many different types of people. There will be males, females, different shapes, sizes and skill levels. It’s important to remember how much you can learn from each one. For example when training with a beginner who is not that confident you can work on your control. It’s often harder to do a technique slowly than with speed as there is no momentum. So if you can practice this with the beginner your technique will improve. Similarly if your training with someone who is bigger and heavier than you your technique must improve in order for it to work. If you’re training with an “awkward” fighter, e.g. one who’s stance or strikes are different from the norm you need to work out how to overcome this. It is easy to look good when training with a partner who knows you and who is a similar size and skill level. That doesn’t prove how good you are as much as training with someone who presents a different challenge does however. So treat each partner as a puzzle to be solved and make the most of it. If you do that you will grow as a martial artist.

When engaging in submission fighting whether in class, a competition or even a cage fight it’s important to trust your technique. I often see beginners apply decent techniques in good positions only to see the position given up if the opponent hasn’t tapped out in a couple of seconds. With chokes and strangles as an example the technique may be good even if it’s not perfect and it may be a long time before your opponent feels the need to tap out or lose consciousness. Beginners often give up these winning positions, especially if the opponent shows what some of my senior students have christened the “poker
face”. Remember your opponent may look as though they are not hurting, but if they aren’t hurting you and you are applying a choke or lock on them then it may well be a bluff! The other mistake beginners often make is the “all or nothing” mistake. This is when they apply a choke or strangle with all their might for a few seconds and then relax when tired and begin again. Remember when you relax you release the pressure and allow your opponent another breath! It’s better to be steady, keeping the technique on for a sustained period without tiring yourself and starving your opponent of oxygen. If you remember these things you may well get a few higher grade scalps in the Dojo than you’re getting now and we all know how good that feels! The retribution will come in the next class of course but it’s worth it!

As the title if this article suggests I am a Ju Jitsu teacher. I sometimes get asked in class why I don’t spend more time teaching how to punch and kick. The answer to that is simple. I am not an expert at punching and kicking myself. I studied Shotokan Karate for two years and have done some boxing and kick boxing which mean that I’m not awful at punching and kicking. I know enough to teach the basics. After all it’s difficult to learn how to defend a kick for example if the attack isn’t realistic. If a student really wants to learn how to punch and kick properly in order to compliment their Ju Jitsu however, I recommend that they go to learn one of the arts that specialise in those skills. If they want to learn weapons then they should go to a school that specialises in weapons. It is a misconception to believe that because a teacher is good at one martial art, they can pick up the nuances of another in a few lessons and then teach it. I’ve been studying Ju Jitsu for over 27 years now and I’m still learning! All martial arts have their weaknesses so it’s good to plug those weaknesses with a complementary art. The one caveat to that I would suggest is to become reasonably proficient at one before you adopt another. It’s difficult enough to train your body to move in a certain way when learning your first martial art. It’s obviously much more difficult to learn two from scratch at the same time. That aside however I think it is more than worthwhile soaking up all the knowledge you can. In short, by learning from the expert you’ll ensure you’ll become the best martial artist you can be.

This is one of the biggest problems I face when trying to teach students. They try to be fast instead of concentrating on good technique. When you are learning a technique it is important to start slowly and ensure that the technique is good. Take your time, repeat the technique again and again making sure it’s correct and more importantly that it works! Every technique takes a sequence of movements in order to execute it correctly. If you are trying to speed it up often you will miss one of the parts of the sequence so it will not work. The other problem when you’re trying to be fast is that you are tense and so your muscles are not moving freely. This has the opposite effect! So am I saying that speed doesn’t count? Absolutely not! Real speed comes with fluidity and perfect execution however. The only way to achieve this speed is to spend time getting your technique right and repeating it again and again. The more effortless the execution is the faster and more effective it will be.